Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) said on the 18th that the media art performance "Cine Forest: Awakening Bloom," directed by Lee Jin-joon, a professor at the Graduate School of Culture Technology (head of the Art & Technology Center), will be held for three days from the 19th to the 21st at the outdoor stage in Bundang Central Park in Seongnam.
The performance turns the autumn night forest into a single, gigantic screen. For the first time in the world, images will be projected along an entire forest path spanning 200 meters, creating an immersive performance where city and nature, technology and humans blend. Using the fairy tale "The Giant Who Became a Star" as its motif, it tells the story of a giant who once protected the sky, sharing starlight with city dwellers who have lost the light in their eyes, and eventually becoming a star themself, showing the purity and hope that modern people have lost.
In Apr., Lee Jin-joon applied image projection technology to a space antenna to express the emotional universe within humans in the science-art project "Good Morning Mr. G-Dragon," which beamed singer G-Dragon's music "Home Sweet Home" into space.
This performance will employ 16 video devices, high-power lasers, smog, and other special effects on a scale comparable to an Olympic opening ceremony. The directing process mobilized cutting-edge technologies, including digital data created by 3D scanning the forest, artificial intelligence (AI) voice synthesis, and simulations using virtual reality (VR) equipment.
In addition, the voices of a 65-member orchestra and a 1,000-person citizen choir with an AI agent will spread throughout the park, and the giant's voice will blend with light and sound, and with the sounds of nature such as wind, water, and insects, creating an immersive soundscape. This is to offer an experience of "being in the forest while at the same time being inside the images" in a place where forest and city, and real and virtual spaces overlap. This kind of "liminal time-space experience" has also been the general director Lee's research theme for 20 years.
Lee said, "This performance goes beyond simple media art to offer a multisensory experience where nature and the city, technology and humans coexist organically," adding, "I hope you will join us for a special experience where every act of walking and breathing by the audience becomes part of a single story within images unfolding like a landscape painting."
The performance is part of the "2025 Seongnam Festival" and takes place every day at 7:30 p.m. Detailed information about the performance can be found on Professor Lee Jin-joon's website (leejinjoon.com) and on the official 2025 Seongnam Festival website (https://www.seongnamfestival.com/2-1).